Charges of lèse majesté have increased dramatically since the September 2006 coup which deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In January 2009, Australian writer Harry Nicolaides was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment but was later pardoned by the king. In February, an arrest warrant was issued for Thai-British academic Giles Ji Ungpakorn for his book, A Coup For The Rich, criticising the 2006 military coup. Giles fled the country to avoid imprisonment.

In May 2008, BBC Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head was accused of lèse majesté after ‘inappropriate photographs’ were posted on the BBC’s news wesbite. Several issues of the Economist carrying articles about the king have been pulled from the shelves in Thailand. Paul M Handley’s biography of the monarch, The King Never Smiles, has been banned in Thailand since its publication in 2006, and websites advertising the book have been blocked.

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology claims to have shut down more than 2,000 websites alleged to have contained lèse majesté material. And on 23 January, the Senate set up an extraordinary committee to oversee the blocking of further sites, warning that over 10,000 could be targeted.

In a letter to the king of Thailand, ARTICLE 19, English PEN and Index on Censorship wrote: “This is an extremely harsh sentence. We are deeply concerned about the routine use of lèse majesté to silence criticism and dissent in Thailand. We ask that Suwicha Thakhor be pardoned, and that the Thai authorities repeal a law that is chilling free speech.”

International guarantees of freedom of expression require public figures to tolerate more, rather than less, criticism. By providing special protection for royalty, lèse majesté laws breach these guarantees.

Thailand: THOUSANDS of anti-government protesters retreated on Friday after an all-day stand-off with soldiers at the Asian summit but vowed to return unless Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva resigns: here.

6 thoughts on “Ten years Thai jail for blogging”

THAILAND: The Thai prime minister has vowed to prevent a civil war as he braces for a massive anti-government protest on Wednesday, just two days before Asian leaders gather for a summit in the country.

In a nationally televised speech aired on Monday, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said: “We cannot allow a civil war or a people’s revolution. If the situation leads to a riot, the government cannot stand still.”